Chapter 3 - A FATHER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
The emergency department smelled of disinfectant and damp winter coats.
An X-ray confirmed a fractured collarbone and a shoulder injury that would require careful follow-up.
The physician asked how the fall happened, and I described the kick without softening a single word.
I was still in a hospital gown when General Daniel Cole arrived outside the curtain.
“Evelyn?”
The voice took me back to a helicopter cabin filled with smoke and shouts.
I turned and saw a man who had built an imposing career on top of old injuries.
His silver hair was neat, but his hands were shaking.
“You're alive,” he said.
“Apparently that's surprising news in your house.”
Daniel winced.
He glanced toward the doorway where Captain Vega stood with a notebook.
“Could we have a moment?”
“No,” I said.
“Not until you explain why your son believes I died.”
Daniel watched the monitor over my bed rather than my face.
“There were reports after the operation,” he began.
“I know the reports, Daniel. I signed one.”
“Not the report I'm talking about.”
Vega straightened.
“Sir, I need to remind you this may become part of an investigation.”
“Then it should,” I said.
Daniel sat as though his knees had suddenly stopped listening.
He confessed that years earlier he'd received a sealed casualty notification identifying Commander Mercer as missing and presumed dead after a classified recovery mission.
He claimed he had never been given a correction.
That was impossible.
My recovery had taken six months, and my name had appeared at a closed Navy ceremony attended by senior officers.
Someone had deliberately separated the public story from the private one.
“Who signed the notification?” I asked.
Daniel said he had kept the letter in a box for seventeen years.
“Bring it,” I said.
For the first time he looked ashamed rather than stunned.
“My son did something unforgivable.”
“Your son committed an assault,” I replied.
“He will answer for it as your son, not as the officer's child everyone is afraid to discipline.”
He nodded slowly.
“And you?”
“I will answer questions I've been avoiding.”
A nurse approached with a folded paper bag containing my white uniform.
Pinned to its collar was a note from Walter in a wavering hand.
Ask him about the second helicopter.
I looked up too quickly, sending pain through my shoulder.
Daniel read the note before I could hide it.
May you like
For one instant his eyes held the same terror I'd seen in Afghanistan.
“Walter should never have remembered that,” he whispered.
